We have a Toddler!

Did you pay attention to the face above? I'm not talking about that sweet little baby Charlotte face, I'm talking about that toddler "no no mamma" face. Do you see it?! When did our baby take that miraculous leap into toddler-hood? I mean the last blog entry I wrote was 3 weeks ago (yes, we all know I'm horrible about updating this thing frequently), but in that 3-week time frame somehow our baby was replaced by a hilarious, talking, sticky, imaginative, "no no" yelling, messy, whiny, lovable, sneaky toddler - right before our eyes (I'm guessing this is only the first time she pulls one off on mom & dad)!

Some recent Charlotte happenings:

• Sunglasses. I've bought 2 pair of sunglasses from Target Dollar Bin. This weekend she'd barely take them off. She realized also that one pair is "bedder" because they fit better and those are her favorites.
• About a week ago she learned possessive. Now everything is "Charlotte's." Sometime's it's "daddy's" or "Mart's" (our neighbor Mark), but mostly Charlotte's. I do think "Charlotte's" is better than "mine," so I'll take it.
• Sudden infatuation with her babies. The first thing she said when she woke up this morning was "baby...baby seepin...Charlotte's baby..." and that's all she played with pre & post-daycare today. She feeds them bottles (complete with noises), cleans them when they're "messy" and kisses them when they go to sleep. She even tries to put her diapers on because they "poop." It's utterly adorable and amazing to watch her beginning pretend play. She even feeds a bunny the tomato & lettuce from her velcrow sandwich toy.
• Another pretent play...we've caught her 'reading.' It's absolutely hilarious. She'll sit with a book, look at and turn the pages and make noises like she's reading. She only does it when she's alone and we love to catch her. She's also started memorizing parts of her favorite books, she'll say some words right when we turn the page.
• Silly Bandz - aren't those things for grade school kids? Well, our 19-month old is pretty much obsessed. She's gotten a few from Zach (or babysitter's son whom she adores) and Grandma Millay sent some too. It's amazing, she puts them on, picks out the "lellow" and "pintk" ones and wears them all day. She's like a 10-year old already, seriously.
• The repetition...she repeats everything. Wait, did I mention e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g.? Yes, it's time to be very careful about what we say and do around here!
• Obviously she still has a pretty solid mullet (does that have 1 t or 2?)...but it actually made it into piggy-tails! That's a big milestone.
• We're working on colors and counting. She will pick out colors if you give her instructions to "bring me the yellow block." But if you ask her what color something is, she almost always answers "buooo" (blue). She's got 2 down, we're working on 1,2,3,4,5, which she will repeat.
• Potty training - well, let's leave that one for next time. We have a seat on the potty and she knows she gets a sticker if she goes, but no big strides. Every few times I sit her on there she'll go and then get super excited, yell "yay" and clap, but it's hit or miss. We'll wait a bit longer to really push potty training.

This is such a fun time and we are having a blast watching our baby grow and learn new things. We have no idea what she'll say or do next, but we know it'll be amazing and hilarious all at the same time!

With all my chatter, y'all deserve some new photos. Here's some Summer Fun ones. Enjoy!